On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 14:38:05 +0000 (UTC), Paul Tomblin wrote:

Hey Paul,

Can't answer from "experience" but that won't stop me from trying to say my
opinion :-))

Any more experienced Great Lakes area pilots able to answer some questions
about lake effect snow?

1. When there are bands of lake effect snow across your path:
- how high up do they go?
- how much ice do they produce?

Don't know how high the tops are, but lake effect snows do produce thunder
snow, having been there done that when I lived in Ohio. It's a wild
experience on the ground, I sure wouldn't want to be inside a band of lake
effect snow. I'd imagine, it be a pretty rough ride. I think the tops go
up to 15 to 20K based on the inversion levels in the more intense bands.

I would think you would need to treat the more intense bands as if you
would a thunderstorm?

2. What about if the band is covering the airport? Fly the approach or
wait?

In the more intense bands, I'd say you would not be able to fly the
approach as the viz would be well below minimums. Ceilings I'd imagine
would be close to minimums or obscured in the more intense snow bands.

Since there are bands of lake effect snow almost continually from now
until March between here and anywhere I want to go, should I give up any
dreams of flying IFR during the winter?

Having never dealt with snow, I wonder about the safety of flying IMC in
snow in general..... Wouldn't the clouds produce some form of icing within
the snowfall if you were in IMC? I'd imagine below the cloud deck the snow
would be "relatively" harmless, but inside IMC, wouldn't the clouds be
supercooled droplets?

Allen